American preacher Jim Bakker, who with his wife Tammy Faye built a financial empire in the 1970s/1980s before experiencing a spectacular decline marked by scandals and prison, has died at the age of 86.
His death on Monday was announced by his second wife, Lori Bakker, who paid tribute in a message published on Instagram to this “pioneer of Christian television”.
Jim Bakker rose to national fame with his show “Praise the Lord,” also called “PTL.” A multi-millionaire, he even owned an amusement park with his wife.
Tammy Faye, who died in 2007, long accompanied her husband’s pastoral tours in song. Playing on an extravagant style, she notably sported outrageous makeup and in particular superimposed layers of mascara supposed to resist her televised tears.
The two spouses had also created a puppet show intended for the children of evangelist families. Jim Bakker was one of the best-known televangelists in the United States before the era of social networks and his fall in the late 1980s was all the more resounding.
Sentenced to 45 years in prison
The preacher was first forced to resign from “PTL” in 1987 after paying one of his secretaries handsomely to keep quiet about their intimate affair.
A year later, Jim Bakker was prosecuted for vast frauds amounting to $158 million to the detriment of believers who had invested in his bankrupt businesses, which in fact were used to finance his couple’s luxurious lifestyle.
Sentenced to 45 years in prison, he had his sentence reduced and ultimately remained behind bars for less than five years. He relaunched his career with his second wife and a new show launched in 2003.
In recent years, he made headlines again by selling a quack cure for Covid-19 and supporting Donald Trump.
